Twins in Time
by Miz636
Summary: Nian and N'ru are in the 4th Pass where no one knows about timing it yet. They go to visit their family in Lado Hold... with a memory from 9 Turns before on their minds.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Pern and it's Dragonriders belong to Anne McCaffrey.**

**This is my first try at a Dragonriders of Pern FanFic, so I hope you like it. Thanks truegold-dragonstar for your help on writing this first chapter. **

**These two characters come from "Ever the Twain", a short story from A Gift of Dragons. Enjoy!**

**Chapter One**

Nian woke up and turned onto her left side to look at the golden hide of her sleeping queen. She just lay there adoring Quinth without even paying attention to the time.

When Quinth started to move restlessly, Nian got out of bed and smelled the cool mountain air of High Reaches Weyr. She realized then that K'vin wasn't in the bed anymore, which meant he and Oswith were out training their wing. So she wouldn't see him for a while.

Then she got dressed and went over to her dragon. She leaned against her dragon's side until Quinth woke up completely. Nian looked into Quinth's faceted eyes for a little while, remember their Impression, before either of them did anything.

_Aren't you supposed to be in the Weyrwoman's weyr confirming your trip back to your home with your brother? _Quinth asked her rider. _He already did earlier but he remembers the time difference. He's just getting impatient and it's starting to annoy Larinth, so Larinth is annoying me._

"Yes I'm supposed to be, and I will after I get food, so have Larinth tell Ru that please."

_N'ru says to eat quickly then, or he'll go ahead and without you._

Nian groaned. "Tell him I'll be there as soon as I can and that I say to stop using our dragons as messengers."

_I told him and Larinth and I both say thanks for the messenger part. N'ru is stopping._

"That's good." Nian then lead her queen to the ledge of her weyr before mounting so that Quinth could take them both down to the Bowl. As she headed into the kitchen she said good morning to Gisela, the Headwoman, who was still frowning after having to tell a drudge off for slacking but smiled when she saw Nian. She passed Karin, the other Junior Weyrwoman, as she came down the corridor and the two of them smiled at each other. She almost bumped into two riders who were talking as then went down the hall, not paying attention to who was coming, and had to move to the side so that they wouldn't bang into her. She watched them go down the corridor for a moment, shaking her head at their carelessness.

Nian went into the kitchen to find food and it seemed like luck was on her side because M'thew, the Weyrleader, and Dalia, the Weyrwoman, were both in there standing by the food. The tall Weyrleader, with his longish dark-brown hair, was getting his food. He had a kind smile on his face that he usually wore because he might be strict but he could be extremely nice and caring too; which he usually is.

The tall Weyrwoman, red hair down just past her shoulders so that it fit into her riding helmet easily, was standing there next to him, waiting for him to finish getting his breakfast. She had a small smile on her face, which Nian looked at and took in to mean she was in a good mood. The Weyrwoman was very nice most of the time, but on a bad day, no one really wanted to deal with her.

When Nian walked up to the fire to get her food they motioned for her to join them at their table after she gets her oatmeal and klah. After she got her breakfast, she went over to the table they were sitting at and sat down to eat.

"You and your twin brother wish to go visit your family today, correct?" Dalia asked Nian. Nian looked into her hazel eyes in surprise.

"Yes, and he is having Larinth annoy Quinth to get me to hurry."

M'thew laughed quietly at that before he said, "Well then eat up and go join him quickly. We don't want an annoyed queen here in the weyr, do we now?"

Nian looked up into his smiling light-brown eyes and grinned. "Thank you." She hurried through her meal, watching M'thew tell off a Weyrling for tripping a drudge and resulting in the china being shattered, relieved that she wasn't that Weyrling. After she finished, she rushed out to her dragon, passing a few drudges with trays of more food.

"We have permission to go!" She said to her dragon excitedly when she reached her.

_That is great, little one. Should I tell Larinth so that N'ru stops bothering him?_

"Yes. Tell him that we'll be there shortly." Nian was still smiling because she was so happy to be able to go see her parents and younger siblings.

She closed her riding jacket and put her helmet on before she mounted Quinth again. Quinth took off from the ground and flew above the Bowl. Nian visualized Ista Weyr's Bowl and asked Quinth to take them _between. _

They went into the cold of _between_, now used to it after seven Turns of going into it. Suddenly, they burst into the warm air above Ista Weyr. It hit Nian just like going into a warm bath after being outside during the winter when it's snowing lightly. She felt very hot in her riding jacket and wanted to take it off right then, but didn't because she knew that when she went _between _again, she would be freezing.

They glided down towards N'ru's weyr and identified themselves to the watch dragon.

Larinth told N'ru that his sister was there and headed to his ledge, so N'ru went out to meet her on the ledge with Larinth following.

"Took you long enough." N'ru moaned at his sister while she got off Quinth.

"Hey, I had to eat breakfast you know. I know you already ate, so don't blame me. It's not my fault Ista is ahead of High Reaches."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Can we just go already? I haven't seen our family in five Turns and I know you haven't in six Turns."

"Sure, let's get going."

They both mounted their dragons. Larinth moved over to let Quinth take off first before he went. This time they went past the watch dragon, waved to his rider, and flew straight for a little. They landed by a small lake so that they could talk for a few minutes before visiting their family. They sent their dragons into the lake before sitting against some trees and on the soft grass. They just watched the two dive under water and saw the gold and bronze glittering on the surface of the water from the sunlight on their hides.

"So… how is it at Ista?" Nian asked her twin after a few minutes.

"Nothing is going on there right now; just Threadfall." N'ru replied.

"Same thing at High Reaches. Nothing new is going on anymore."

They both just watched their dragons swim in the lake for a little, enjoying the peace. Their dragons were both staying underwater as long as possible and when they came up for air, tried to aim their splashes at their riders; usually hitting them. That got both of them laughing after the first time, before they moved farther away from their dragons to give them a challenge.

Nian looked at her twin and realized that their parents might not recognize them anymore. Both had gotten a lot fitter, stronger, and taller since they had left. They still had their green eyes and black hair, even if that was a different length from before.

She let the thought go and remembered Orla and C'aum, her old friends from Lado, and Robina, the girl she had met at Ista when she had Impressed Quinth. Orla and Robina had impressed greens and C'aum a brown. Amazingly enough, all three were in N'ru's wing.

"Ru, how are Orla, C'aum, and even Robina doing?" Nian asked her twin, curious to find out how her old friends are doing.

"Orla and C'aum are really annoyed at me because they expect me to give them special treatment in my wing just because they are old friends." He said while laughing. "Robina is very good at fighting Thread on Lyrith and is a lot nicer now. I think my training snapped that old self out of her."

"That's really great to know. Please tell Orla and C'aum that I feel a little sorry for them, but not really. Being trained as a queen rider isn't as easy as it seems."

"Sure." N'ru was laughing again. "How's K'vin doing?"

"Probably killing his wing with training right now. I've heard more than one rider complaining about how hard his training is to other riders, but they have a lot of respect for him."

"That's good. Glad to hear everything is fine over at High Reaches."

"It's nice to hear the same about Ista. We really need to get together at each other's Weyr more often."

"I agree."

They watched their dragons some more, and right then their dragons were splashing each other with water. Then Larinth went underwater, grabbed Quinth's tail, and dragged her under. Nian and N'ru laughed at how Quinth was struggling. This reminded N'ru of a day back just before they had left home.

"Nian, do you remember that day back at Lado when we got to watch the dragons prepare to fly thread? There were all of those dragons waiting there for the Thread to come. You had the bronzes, browns, greens, and blues all mixed together while the queens were flying below. That sight had been absolutely beautiful.

"That was the only time we've had to visit our parents together. We had been Weyrlings and had told that when the dragons appeared above Lado, we had to go back to the Weyr so that I could lug firestone sacks around and so that you would be safe."

"Yes, I remember it very well and it was a beautiful sight. I wish we could see that sight from the ground again."

N'ru opened his mouth to say something else when both Quinth and Larinth came up at once, spraying both of them with water. Their riders stood up and started to try and dry themselves. After a few minutes when they were finally dry their dragons said, _we're bored, can we go now?_

Nian and N'ru both laughed before agreeing that it was time to get going. They mounted their dragons and flew up high enough to go _between _before their dragons got close enough to let them talk.

"Do you have the image of our home from one of the sweepriders?" Nian asked her brother.

"Shards. Nian, it's like you don't trust me. Of course I have the image."

At that moment, both remembered the conversation they had just had about the Threadfall when they had both been allowed to be late to visit their family. They remembered how the sky had looked as well as the ground with all the people staring at the amazing dragons above. They remembered how the houses had looked, the ground, where the sun had been in the sky, and all others details of that scene.

"Ready?" N'ru asked his sister.

She nodded and replied, "Ready."

They both ordered their dragons _between _with the image of the nine Turn old Lado Hold awaiting Threadfall in their minds.

**Please Review and tell me what you think of it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Pern and its Dragonriders belong to Anne McCaffrey.**

**A/N: I'm really sorry about the wait but between school, the fact that I also write FanFiction for another series, and the fact that this chapter just couldn't seem to get written, I couldn't get this done until under two weeks ago. I'll try not to take so long again! Also, a huge thanks to my Beta, truegold-dragonstar, for helping me fix this chapter up. It wouldn't be done without you! Please, review.**

**Chapter Two**

Nian always counted the time it took to go between. _One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven… Eight… Nine… Ten… _She began to worry.

_Quinth, going _between _usually takes only until I reach eight! Something's wrong._

_Nothing is wrong, we are coming out now._

The moment after Quinth had said that, they came out of _between. _

The twins both looked up just as they came out of _between _and gasped at what they saw. They stared at the sight of the entire Ista Weyr, all facing the east, awaiting Thread. The bronzes, browns, blues, and greens were all in their Wing positions like they were supposed to be. Big bronze Nerith with the Istan Weyrleader, T'mar, on his neck was at the front of the group.

They both caught movement closer to them out of the corner of their eyes and turned towards their right to see two golden dragons flying just above the Hold. Clidith and Kaye were leading Ledith and Aleeza so that they were ready to move when Thread suddenly hit the fighting dragons above them.

N'ru looked at the sight above him, not wanting to believe his eyes. He couldn't believe that the scene above him was identical to the one that he had been remembering earlier with Nian. Just one glance at her face told him that she was just as amazed by the sight as he was.

The sight of the dragons moving upwards, towards the silver clouds coming their way reminded N'ru of the imminent Threadfall and how he and Nian were out in the open, no firestone with them at all. They were unprotected and had to get out of there. Searching his mind for a quick escape that was nearby the Hold, he remembered a cave he had used to go to all the time.

_Larinth, tell Quinth to have Nian tell her where the cave we used to play in is so that we can wait out the Thread there, _N'ru ordered his bronze quickly.

_It is done. She is leading us. _There was a pause before Larinth spoke again. _Is this cave big enough for all of us?_

N'ru sent Larinth a memory before he replied. _That's why I chose that cave. It's big enough for a queen and a bronze, still leaving room for their riders to relax._

_Good. I hope it is close, Thread will be falling soon._

N'ru looked down at the ground and took in their surroundings. _We should be there in a minute or two._

A minute later, Quinth started to head down to land with Larinth right behind her. The dragons landed by a mouth of a cave and the riders dismounted and walked into the cave. The dragons followed their riders as they went deeper into the cave. Nian stopped in the middle of the cave, letting the memories of the games she and her twin had played here as children fill her mind. She then turned to watch as N'ru walked the around the edge of the cave, his hand sliding against the rock as he did so. His face showed the happiness it had always shown there when they were younger, telling Nian that her twin was remembering their games as much as she was.

She walked over to Quinth and found an eye ridge to scratch as she watched N'ru finish his walk around the back of the cave and turn to his dragon. Nian then noticed that Larinth was moving a bit restlessly and Quinth was moving under her touch more than usual. Remembering that Threadscored dragons had to be kept under control until Thread passed if it was over the Weyr, sometimes moved out of the Weyr, she started to mutter calming words that meant nothing to anyone else while she continued to scratch her dragon's eye ridge.

N'ru walked up to Larinth, placing his hand on his dragon's hide, clearing his mind of everything except happy memories from his life. Some from in the cave that they were in, others from when he and Nian were playing outside the Hold around seven Turns old, and others from when the two of them were Weyrlings and fooling around.

Quinth and Larinth calmed down slightly, but it was obvious to the twins that they would have to keep this up until Thread had passed over their cave. Their dragons were in perfect health and were in their prime year for fighting Thread, so it was only right for them to want to go out and fight Thread except that they shouldn't have been there at all.

They kept up the calm thoughts and words until Thread had finally passed over their cave and Quinth and Larinth had calmed down more. They finally got the chance to sit down on the rocky ground and think about what had happened. Nian was on Quinth's foreleg while N'ru was leaning against Larinth's side.

Nian was thinking about how she had been picturing this image by mistake as they went _between_. Looking up from her thoughts, she saw her brother looking at her oddly and knew that he was wondering if he had woken up yet today and if he hadn't, that meant that this was all a dream. Normally, she would have been thinking the same thoughts, but she was feeling a bit odd and it made her think that this was all real and not just her imagination. She felt as if her being in the past was real, but she didn't know how it had happened. All she knew was that she had been thinking of that memory as Quinth went _between_ and then she had appeared under that memory after a slightly longer time _between_ than normal. She decided to ask N'ru if he had been thinking of the memory as he went _between_ too, because if he had been, that could be the reason they were there.

"N'ru, did you think of that memory of that Threadfall we had been talking about at the lake when you went _between_?"

N'ru looked at his sister with a look of disbelief on his face. "Why would I do that? I mean, why would I have been thinking of a different image than the one I was given by a sweeprider? I'm not a Wingleader without reason!"

Nian then looked at her twin, hurt by his yelling at her. "Well sorry if I wanted to make sure that this wasn't just because of some stupid mistake by the two of us!" she yelled at him, her voice rising with every word. "Besides, I know that Wingleaders can make mistakes just as easily as any other rider, including queenriders! I know that I was thinking of that memory and that you probably were too unless Larinth took the image from Quinth and followed her lead _between, _which I don't think is what happened!"

"Of course he didn't take the image from Quinth because I gave it to him!"

"Admit it then; you were thinking of that memory as we went _between_ just as much as I was!"

"I was not!"

"Yes you were!"

The twins stood up and glared at each other in the exact same moment. They continued to stand there, neither of them willing to give up. The only thing keeping the two of them from wrestling with each other is the fact that both of their dragons are thinking calming thoughts and feelings to them.

_Why are you fighting with your brother, Nian? _Quinth asked with a very curious undertone to the question. _You don't usually when you see him._

That one question startled Nian and made her push back her ill feelings towards her brother long enough to try and figure out why this situation seemed so familiar to her. Quinth was right when she said that the two of them never fought like this, if they ever thought. It made her curious as to why she felt as if they had done this before, without a good reason then too.

Giving her twin a curious stare that made his glare turn to a look of surprise, she tried to remember when this had happened before. It must have been a long time before as she couldn't remember it easily, and then a picture flashed through her mind of two young Weyrlings facing each other with glares on their faces. The image was so close to what had just happened to the two twins that Nian suddenly remembered where this had happened before. Staring up at N'ru, she moved towards Quinth so that the feel of her hide could calm her reeling mind down.

She closed her eyes as the memories of a sevenday as Weyrlings suddenly flew through her mind. After they finally passed, she took a deep breath and prepared herself to remind her twin of the sevenday that had been the worst time for them as Weyrlings.

"N'ru," Nian started, hesitating a bit in her worry, "do you remember what happened after the Threadfall when we had gone to our Hold?"

N'ru's face scrunched up in confusion as he tried to figure out what she meant by that one question. He couldn't seem to remember what she meant, so he looked at her and saw her looking at each of their dragons in turn. Just before he asked Nian what she meant, he realized what she meant and stared at her in horror and realization.

"You mean how we had been fighting with everyone including each other, and how it didn't stop for a sevenday, but when it did we went back to normal so easily that we confused everyone from the Weyrlingmaster to the Weyrleaders?"

"I do. The time it started matches up with our now being here, nine Turns in the past, when we aren't supposed to be here. I mean, we started to fight right after the Fall was over and the riders were back. You got back from your last round of giving the riders firestone and came to find me in the barracks, bragging about how you threw your sacks of firestone perfectly."

"Then you yelled at me, telling me not to brag or show-off, so I yelled back at you that you were just jealous because Weyrwomen didn't truly fight Thread and not even sort of until they were fully grown. Our yelling at each other brought the rest of the weyrlings into your room to find out what was going on since we never fought."

"I think we scared a few of them, actually. They would have run except that other weyrlings were blocking the door and didn't want to move. We continued to yell at each other until your Larinth and my Quinth were so agitated that they roared and brought the fight to the attention of the Weyrlingmaster, who came running inside and then stopped short at the sight of you and me in the center of a circle of weyrlings. I think our Weyrlingmaster was H'ran, but anyway, he called the Weyrleaders and they came straight into the room without hesitation until they too saw the sight of us two fighting."

"They stared at us for a moment or two before they walked right between us and demanded to know why we were fighting when we had never fought before. We couldn't even give them a reason for our sudden fighting over a topic we had calmly discussed before, so they told H'ran to separate us until they could figure out what the problem was."

"Kaye left us because Clidith had called her and T'mar stayed to deal with us. We didn't see Kaye again the whole sevenday and T'mar only a few more times. They left H'ran to deal with us and keep us separated, but we never got punished otherwise. I just remember Orla was ordered by H'ran to stay with me and C'aum with you."

"We calmed down almost suddenly after a sevenday. I had been arguing with C'aum when it happened, about something stupid that I can't even remember anymore, and then I suddenly thought to myself 'why am I fighting with one of my best friends, and over something so stupid?' and then I was myself again. I had no more urges to argue over nothing."

"Orla and I had been talking calmly, but I felt my thoughts get calmer and I didn't want to argue anymore with you. Just a little bit later, H'ran came into the room with Kaye and they both told me that I could be with you again. Just after they said it, you came into the room behind T'mar and we apologized."

"Yeah, I remember that too."

They both fell silent after that, not knowing what else to say. N'ru was leaning against Larinth's neck, his mind reeling with the memories of that day and how badly he had wished that Nian would just give in to what he was saying. He didn't like those thoughts, but they had clouded any other thoughts that might have entered his mind so that he was in a plain fury at anyone who made him even slightly angry that sevenday. It had been as if a wind had blow away the clouds during that argument with C'aum and he could think clearly again.

All that knowing that he was in the past and his arguments with Nian had had reason did to him was make him think that that the two of them should stay hidden for a little until they could figure out how to get back home. They couldn't let people know that they were there, in his mind. They had two fully grown dragons and if they were found it would mean a lot of questions that they couldn't answer because they didn't have the answers. All they needed was a place to get food and a water source as well as a shelter and they would be fine, in N'ru's opinion.

"N'ru," Nian called quietly, breaking the silence just before N'ru was going to tell her his idea. "I think I know what we should do."

"What, Ni?" He hoped that she was thinking along the same lines as him so that this would be easy.

"We need to tell Kaye that we're here. By calling Clidith here, I mean. If we go to Ista right now, we'll confuse everyone. We're there in the Weyr right now as well as here in this cave. No one will know what's going on.

"Nian! You're going crazy. We can't tell the Weyrleaders or anyone. We don't belong here, so we can't let them know that we're here."

"N'ru, we have to. We have no other way to get home because we don't know how to get there. Kaye said that Clidith had called her to go somewhere back when we were Weyrlings and we didn't see her again for an entire sevenday, so she must have been called away for good reason. Our being here when we don't belong here would be good enough of a reason! I also know you trust Kaye and T'mar just as much as I do, even if I haven't lived in Ista since just before Quinth's first mating flight."

"I guess you're right," N'ru sighed, not wanting to admit that she had him beat. "One thing though, how are we going to get her to believe us? I mean, if anyone told me that they were from the future, I wouldn't believe them."

"N'ru, we have dragons, remember? All dragons know each other and ours are larger than the ones in the weyrling barracks right now. Besides, she'll be coming from the barracks to us and know that there are two of us."

"True… Go ahead and call her, but only her, and you're doing it, not me."

Nian stifled her laughter as she talked to Quinth. _Can you please call Clidith and tell her to come with Kaye, but not tell her rider who it is that's calling? She won't come if she knows who's calling her._

_Of course. It is done and she's coming here to us. I gave her the picture and she calls her rider. They will be here soon._

_Thank you, love, you're the best._

"She's coming," Nian stated, facing her brother.

He nodded and they both changed their positions slightly against their dragons to make themselves more comfortable as they waited for Kaye to come.


End file.
